Tag Archives: Yayoi Kusama

Couldn’t help but break my current radio silence with this little doozy. What you’re looking at above is a Kusama-ified George Clooney, who’s been ‘self obliterated’ by the Japanese artist for the December/January Art Issue of W Magazine. While Kusama reputedly had no idea who the star was, she covered him with dots anyway. “My idea is to send the message of ‘love forever’ to all the people in the world through the polka dots, which are all about the universe and human beings and living things” she says. “ Your sex, being famous, being a star has nothing to do with it.”

Larry Gagosian is facing the loss of two of his most well known artists. Last week Damien Hirst’s company Science Limited announced; “Larry Gagosian and Damien have reached an amicable decision to part company.” It was only in January that Gagosian committed to showing the artist’s complete suite of spot paintings at all Gagosian galleries worldwide. The dealer has represented Hirst for 17 years.

Hirst’s departure was followed a day later by that of Yayoi Kusama, who has shown with Gagosian since 2009. (Another Gagosian artist – Jeff Koons – is still ostensibly in the stable, but has lined up a solo show at rival gallery David Zwirner in the New Year). In the mean time, Hirst and Kusama continue to be represented by White Cube and Victoria Miro/Ota Fine Arts respectively.

Self-proclaimed ‘Modern Alice in Wonderland’ Yayoi Kusama has illustrated a new version of the Lewis Carroll classic for Penguin (above). She follows in the footsteps of Salvador Dali, who in 1969 created a series of heliogravures to accompany the story. You can buy Kusama’s version online here.

Yayoi Kusama is the subject of a major touring retrospective that opened last week at Tate Modern. To mark the occasion, footage has been released from a forthcoming documentary about the artist. Kusama: Princess of Polka Dotsis currently in post-production, with the directors aiming to launch the film this July to coincide with the exhibition’s arrival at the Whitney in New York. To help make this a reality, you can make a donation to the project here.